“There’s D&D in nearly every [correctional] institution in California.”
This is the line that the introductory video for Let’s Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison, a documentary about the American justice system, and those who fight for the right to play roleplaying games within it, to paraphrase the film’s byline. D&D is a game played by people all around the world, from kids at home, to active-duty members of the military, to people like Kevin T. Singer, who has fought for the right to play while incarcerated.
This project is helmed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Elisabeth de Kleer, who has produced work from stations as varied as the BBC, National Geographic, VICE, and Netflix. She tells this story from the perspective of inmates who have sued for the right to play D&D (or their roleplaying game of choice) while incarcerated, and raises the thorny question of what the purpose of the American prison system actually is. Are the prisons in our country designed to punish wrongdoers, and to remove them from lawful society? Or are they made to rehabilitate people and aid in their eventual return to society?
The promotional video for the Kickstarter campaign for Let's Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison
From handmade d20s to homebrew roleplaying games, those who play RPGs in prison must be creative in ways that many who play on the outside never have to be. And as anyone who’s played D&D knows, group creativity breeds friendship, nurtures communities, and creates a burning desire to return to the world of make-believe time and time again—especially when the real world is made of concrete walls and iron bars. "We were hardcore,” said a former inmate at a California correctional facility. “We’d play from soon as we got back from breakfast to lockup. Saturday or Sunday—all day long." For many people, playing D&D is more than just a way to have fun, it’s a way to stay in touch with your creativity and turn your mind towards constructive, positive rehabilitation—even when dice and D&D books are forbidden within prisons.
Jared Rudolph, one of the inmates interviewed in this video, went on to found the Prisoner Reentry Network, a non-profit located in Oakland, California, that helps former inmates return to everyday life—a task that goes far beyond simply acclimating to life without bars. A pivotal moment for the Prisoner Reentry Network was created when a group of prisoners about to be released from California State Prison – Solano was shown an interview with a former inmate, in order to help them prepare for life outside prison. One of the inmates recognized the person in the interview as an old buddy who he had played D&D with in prison—and the PRN decided to help reunite the former D&D party, using it as an opportunity to use D&D as a “therapeutic opportunity,” one that is “unrecognized…in California’s prisons.”
This isn’t the first time that Elisabeth de Kleer has tackled the topic of D&D behind bars. Her first forays into the topic were a pair of articles published on VICE: Dragons in the Department of Corrections and How Inmates Play Tabletop RPGs in Prisons Where Dice Are Contraband. How do inmates play D&D without dice? How do they play without books? These earlier articles are a bedrock foundation for understanding the experiences of RPG-playing inmates, but they’re not the be-all and end-all of the story. The upcoming Let’s Play documentary, which is in its final few days of funding on Kickstarter, is told through the mouths of inmates and former inmates, sharing their stories and experiences of playing D&D in correctional facilities around the United States.
A smaller-scale documentary project about gaming in prison produced by de Kleer for Waypoint in 2017
The Kickstarter campaign for Let’s Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison hasn’t been funded yet. It describes its funding needs as such:
- Fees for accessing and copying legal materials related to D&D cases. […]
- Cost of putting together a professional camera crew so we can film gaming groups inside prison. (We've already done the most difficult part, which is getting soft approval to film in the first place. Now we just need funding to make the most of this special opportunity.)
- Funds for hiring an animator to breathe life into hand-drawn inmate fantasy art and to create a visual style for the film. The art will be used to illustrate the story in a way that weaves together magical elements with real life. For example, the warden of the prison might be depicted as a dragon or “boss” and the prison itself, a dragon’s lair. These visual intersections of gameplay and real life show how the game becomes a platform to express and explore their inner struggles and demons.
- Creating a marketing and distribution plan that will promote both the film as well as recreational therapy behind bars.
This documentary’s Kickstarter campaign concludes on August 14, 2019 at 3 PM Pacific Time.
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
This sounds awesome! I will have to contribute.
I think it's great that our favorite game is helping people be better! Definitely will have to contribute
I hope it gets funded. It seems like a really good cause.
WARNING: INSENSITIVE COMMENT AHEAD
Do they get less roleplay for playing rogues because it's not a stretch to be "in character" and, if so, is there a reciprocating reward for playing lawful good to a tee?
Seriously, though, I love this concept.
very interesting efforts
I loooooovvvvveeeee this soooooooo much it is so inspirational. Thank you for telling me
If they can find that playing these games can better rehabilate them and help them once they're outside then I say go for it. I've found it to be a great theraputic tool and I've never been in prison.
But it can also be seen as a type gang mentality which they dont want in prisons.
I just want to push back at the arguments of Jarl and Veth13. While I agree with your point in principle, we musn't lose sight of the fact that killers and rapist are a very small minority of inmates. There are a couple of million people incarcerated in the US and that includes people in jail waiting for trial - so not even officially guilty of anything.
While I agree that it is difficult to take pity on those whose crimes are heinous, denying any form of rehabilitation to ALL incarcerated people seems not only over-the-top, but also heartless.
Everyone has a right to friendship and imagination! Everyone deserves to game! :D
Adric: The BOP numbers seem to support your claim, and are very interesting to look at:
https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp
I mean, no one is forcing you to. If you really want to be skeptical, it isn't even clear that d&d is actually therapeutic or helpful.
These are still people though, and the fact remains that our prison system is supposed to be a reformative system and it absolutely is not currently. Little changes like this can help it along.
"Prison should be a horrible experience" type opinions are partially to blame for how awful the current U.S. prison system is. Countries where prison is intendended for rehabilitation instead of harsh punishment have dramatically lower rates of repeat offenders.
This definitely sounds like something I'd watch and I'd love to help fund it! Prison life can be difficult and frequently hardens those incarcerated to more heinous crimes than the initially committed, having an out like D&D and other such outlets for creativity allows for a better rehabilitation experience.
To the people complaining that this is supposed to be prison, read the whole article. It specifically says that the documentary seeks to question/clarify what the purpose of prison is. Is it to rehabilitate or to inflict punishment? Furthermore, in regards to the American prison system, the Land of the Free incarcerates a larger portion of its population than the civilized world, most of them for victimless or nonviolent crimes.
You couldn’t have said it better, Thucydides~
Being a level 2/3 prison, Salano does house violent and sexual offenders. While I will compromise and agree to going on a case by case basis for those that do not fit that criteria. If the majority of prisoners were just non violent offenders they would be in a level 1 facility. The problem with trying to pass some across the whole board is in that video they never once talk about it only going up to a certain level of facility. As far a harshness of of prison, if they are at a lvl 3 or below facility, rehabilitation might be a possibility but the repeat offenders who sell kids meth, shoot people when they're pissed off and molest kids deserve no sympathy.
looks good
rehab 100
This sounds really, really good. Anything to make the American prison system less of a repeat-factory and more of a rehabilitation facility, especially given how downright anti-functional the US prison system can be. I understand the comments about prisoners being punished and that's definitely a discussion to have, but the vast, vast majority of prisoners are inside for things that don't directly (or even indirectly in many cases) harm others. If someone has committed willing, pre-meditated murder or... other things of a similar calibre (can we not just throw around the R word without warning please) then yeah, no they shouldn't have a great time in there. But remember, most people in American prison end up repeating specifically because it's a torturous system that teaches only with fists and steel (and groups the relatively harmless with the downright dangerous), not because there's any such thing as an "inherently" bad person. Look at any country with a rehab-focused prison system. Yeah, even I sometimes feel that certain inmates don't deserve those freedoms... but, even then, that matters much less than whether it works. Which it really demonstrably does.
An example, off the top of my head, is Norway:
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12?r=US&IR=T
https://www.lifeinnorway.net/prisons/
I think it's excellent that these things are being improved for people, and that is a very worthy kickstarter that I'll bet just got about all the funding it needs thanks to D&DBeyond.
Also, "Adric", that wouldn't happen to be a Five reference would it? If so, how very dare.
Now, I know that the people playing this game in prison could've done some terrible stuff, but I still think that this is an amazing idea. I hope it gets funded!